SAULT

Untitled (Rise)

Black rage. It's always been one of the biggest driving elements to the constant drive to protest every form of systemic racism. It's a rage that's the product of self-awareness of the reality of our standing as people in the face of the American Empire. It's a constant rage, one that erupts even within me every now and then. As put eloquently by the illustrious James Baldwin:

"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of ... read more

Lot of people here saying Rise is better than Black Is... psh you know it ain't. Sorry I wanted to get that in there. On first listen, I was quite sure that I enjoyed Rise more. Coming back to these two releases, I'm feeling the opposite as of now. SAULT's Untitled (Black Is) had moments of Afro-soul, bass-driven groove, beautiful vocal sampling, an RTJ-esque beat with Stop Dem, and a clear driving theme of Black pride. The synth-heavy moments on the latter half are awe-inspiring.

On Untitled ... read more

So, this album just became the highest rated album of the year (critic score), tied with Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters so I was intrigued to check this out, to say the least. I was also really intrigued by the fact that I had never heard of SAULT prior to seeing this hit number 1 in the critic scores. After listening to this record, I’m still confused about who or what a SAULT is, and am also confused as to why this is the highest-rated album of the year.

However, I will ... read more

I enjoyed Untitled (Black Is), but I saw room for improvement. Unfortunately, this project feels a little less cohesive.

Untitled (Rise) is a solid album, but it’s still a little long and there are too many moments that don’t feel fully fleshed out. The highlights on here don’t match those on Black Is, even if I do like a lot of what’s on here. A lot of talent and potential here, but I think they need to take a little more time and make their next release a little more ... read more